Governor O'Malley Announces Israeli Tech Company to Establish U.S. Operations in Montgomery County, Maryland
ClassifEye, Ltd. accepts a $325,000 investment from State, County
BALTIMORE, MD (June 1, 2008) – Following a meeting with company officials in Jerusalem today, Governor Martin O’Malley announced that ClassifEye, Ltd., an Israeli identity authentication solutions company, is establishing its U.S. headquarters in Montgomery County. Founded in 2003, ClassifEye has developed a unique, patent pending software-only solution that enables secure, highly reliable biometric (fingerprint) authentication, utilizing the on-board camera of phones and other mobile devices. Based in Jerusalem, the company is now successfully marketing worldwide its solutions for mobile banking, corporate access control, and other identity management applications.
The State of Maryland has invested $250,000 as part of an up to $2 million Series B1 round led by Maryland-based early stage venture capital firm, Nobska Ventures. The State’s investment has been made through DBED’s Enterprise Investment Fund, a program designed to assist small start-up companies in the high technology sector. The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development anticipates joining the state with partial matching funds in support of ClassifEye’s location in Montgomery County.
“As one of the top technology hubs in the nation, Maryland is an ideal location for a cutting- edge company like ClassifEye,” said Governor O’Malley. “Maryland offers high tech companies a wealth of assets unlike anywhere in the world, including access to a number of federal labs and research institutes and a highly educated workforce that meets the needs of technology-based companies. Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett visited ClassifEye during his trade mission to Israel in October. This is an excellent example of the state, Montgomery County and the Maryland/Israel Development Center working together to attract new companies and jobs to the state.”
ClassifEye’s CEO, Rami Cohen, remarked, “While we will initially begin with a small team in the Rockville incubator, we anticipate substantial and rapid growth in the US, with our Maryland operation supporting sales, marketing, and applications development worldwide. Core R&D will remain in Israel, with most customer-facing development and services based in Maryland. We wish to particularly recognize the efforts of the Maryland/Israel Development Center encouraging us to choose Maryland for our primary US location.”
”When I visited the lab and met the staff of ClassifEye in Israel, I was convinced that their entrepreneurial spirit and technological passion were a perfect match for Montgomery County’s high tech community,” said Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett. “I join Governor O’Malley in welcoming ClassifEye to Maryland and to its network of successful global business partners and look forward to extending the same warm hospitality to ClassifEye in Montgomery County that they gave to me in Israel.”
The announcement came as Governor O’Malley was wrapping up his week-long economic development mission to Israel, which began May 27. The Governor, accompanied by a number of Maryland business and Jewish community leaders, traveled to Israel to speak at the prestigious Israel Biomed 2008 Conference in Tel Aviv last week, and also to meet with a number of Israeli government officials and Israeli businesses considering expanding or locating offices in Maryland.
The goal of the mission is to encourage more foreign direct investment in Maryland by Israeli companies, which already have a significant presence in the State. Nearly 30 Israeli companies maintain offices in Maryland, including the U.S. business development offices of Israel’s largest defense contractors, Rafael and Israel Military Industries (IMI). In addition, Israel’s largest bioscience company and the largest manufacturer of generic drugs in the world, Teva, now has a Maryland presence after its January 2008 acquisition of Rockville-based CoGenesys. Other Israeli companies in Maryland include Controp Precision Instruments, Verint Systems, Vuance, Compugen and Medispec.
In 2005, the latest data available, investment by foreign-owned companies in Maryland was $11.9 billion. An estimated 105,000 jobs, or 5.5 percent of the State’s private sector employment, can be attributed to Maryland’s foreign-owned firms, ranking Maryland 17th in the nation in the number of those employed by U.S. subsidiaries. Among the top countries with U.S. headquarters or subsidiaries in Maryland are the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Canada, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Israel and Finland.
ClassifEye has developed, and is marketing worldwide, a secure, mobile, identity and access management (IAM) solution using existing hardware and infrastructure. The solution is based on the company’s patent-pending, high performance fingerprint authentication technology using cell-phone cameras. ClassifEye’s software-only solution enables biometric authentication for applications including mCommerce, mBanking, enterprise security (including remote access to networks), and set/device security, law enforcement and homeland security. The company’s unique and proprietary technology eliminates the need for dedicated hardware (e.g., fingerprint sensors, USB keys and code generators), thereby substantially reducing costs and accelerating mass market deployment.
DBED’s Enterprise Investment Fund provides financing for small start-up technology companies to cover a portion of the initial costs associated with bringing new products to market. Companies are required to provide matching funds to be eligible for the State funding. Since its inception in 1994, the Enterprise Investment Program has provided more than 85 emerging technology companies with initial financing support for the commercialization of new technology-driven products.
The Maryland/Israel Development Center is a non-profit organization that promotes trade and investment between Maryland and Israeli companies. The MIDC is a public-private partnership of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, Israel's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, and The ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. The MIDC regularly organizes trade missions to Israel for leading Maryland officials and business executives and hosts business and scientific delegations from Israel. Its award winning MarketReach America™ corporate partnering and investment conferences target the life sciences and information and homeland security sectors.
[ view journal and photos from Israel trip ]
